Harder to Breathe
by metro.max
Summary: In which James Potter tells his true feelings. In which Lily Evans hyperventilates. [oneshot]


**Disclaimer: **I own my iPod. Does that count?

**Author's Notes: **So, this really has nothing to do with Maroon 5's song of the same name, but I thought it fit, so it stuck. This was supposed to be a hilarious humor bit, but does anything ever turn out the way I'd like it to?

Anyway, I like this piece quite a bit. It's nice and certainly not out of control. Short, yes, but so am I. (Harhar.) So **review**, if you would!

_Aliss_

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_**_Harder to Breathe_**

"Er… Lily? You wouldn't mind if we had a word, would you?" asked one James Potter nervously.

Said girl peered around her Potions book and patted the space on the common room couch next to her with her free hand. She noted his uneasy appearance with a raised eyebrow and, upon setting her book in her lap, asked in a rather concerned voice, "What's troubling you?"

He fidgeted uncomfortably before quickly spurting out in what was meant to be a rather demanding tone, "See now, Lily, there's something I need to tell you, and it's rather very important to me, so I don't want you going batty on me, alright?"

She grinned a bit before responding with: "I promise I won't go batty on you, yeah."

He squared his shoulders as he sat up straighter, as if gathering all his confidence. He then tilted his head a spot to the left; after all, the left side was his good side. He took a breath before saying in all seriousness, "I'm an alright bloke, yeah?"

Lily couldn't help but laugh for a moment at the way he built up such a seemingly innocent question with so much anticipation and worry as he did. She chuckled as she shook her head.

"Is that your final answer?" James asked in mock seriousness, but Lily (or anyone else, for a matter of the fact) could see the way he was eyeing her with barely concealed eagerness and hope.

"I'll venture another guess," said Lily playfully, pretending to size him up. After eyeing him skeptically for a moment, she drawled in a prolonged tone, "You're alright, I suppose."

His eyes flashed. "Lily, I'm being serious."

"You're being Sirius? In which case, you're simply fabulous," she said saucily, grinning at him with noted cheek.

He gave her a glare which sobered her right up.

"Sorry, right, no more ribbing," she said quickly. "So then… you want to know what I think of you?"

James nodded his head briskly, his eyes filled with something Lily could only perceive as worry.

She frowned. "No need to fret, James. I find you wonderful," she said, ending with the corners of her lips slightly upturned.

He grinned himself, though not with as much conviction as Lily. "Right… so, if you wouldn't mind, how wonderful, though?"

"Oh, just terribly wonderful," she said in a mock somber tone. "So terribly wonderful, in fact, that it simply shouldn't be allowed. Sorry, dear, but you're not allowed to be so fantastic; it's rather unfair to the rest of us, you know."

She grinned, to which he frowned.

He sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Lily, I'm trying to be reasonable here; I just need an answer," he said, his eyes pleading to her with an unveiled necessity.

She pouted a bit. "Fine then, I'll somber up for you." She paused to think. "I find you to be an unnecessarily good person who has a spot too much time on his hands, but still manages to be unbearably sweet when need be. And you're nice to the other students now, and you've really buckled down in your studies, and you're a generally exceptional bloke whom I love spending time with. You're very admirable, you know, a noble quality. Not to mention I find your fringe rather endearing," she added, brushing back his fly-away bangs with a sweep of her hand.

She grinned as he looked especially pink around the ears. "Have I embarrassed you, the almighty James Potter?" she asked, laughing lightly. "Parish the thought!"

James gave a laugh himself. "I'm really as wonderful as you say, then?" he asked.

"Well, of course," said Lily, dismissing the question with a wave of her hand. "Would I've said any of those things if I hadn't meant them?"

He shook his head quickly. "No… no, of course you wouldn't've," he said distractedly, answering her rhetorical question.

"Right…" said Lily, arching an eyebrow at his curious response.

"Yes, right," he repeated, now staring at her determinedly. "I have to tell you something."

"I do believe this is how we began this conversation in the first place," quipped Lily humouredly, but James silenced her with a shush.

"It's my chance to talk," he said, waving a hand a bit as if to emphasis the point. He opened his mouth as if to speak and then fell silent.

"Erm… yes?" Lily prompted; it didn't seem as if James was going to get whatever he needed to say out by staring at her blankly for the rest of the evening.

"I think I love you."

After a long pause, Lily blinked.

"Er… what, sorry?" she asked blankly.

James blushed something to rival her hair and avoided her gaze as he spoke. "You see… well—I've grown rather… well, rather fond of you, you know, and I think—I think I might just… you know, well… love you, of sorts."

Lily looked rather green around the edges as she spoke. "Of sorts?"

"Yes—well, rather… I've never been in l-love" —he stumbled over the word for a moment, as if it was a difficult concept even for himself to grasp— "with a girl before, so I… I don't know what it's like then," he finished rather lamely.

"Ah," was all Lily could muster. She was looking exceedingly green now, contrasting rather awfully with her hair.

James shifted in the silence. "Well," he muttered, "this is going far worse than I'd imagined it to go."

He looked over at Lily to find her pale enough to faint and her breath coming out quite raggedly. In fact, the longer he listened, the more labored her breathing seemed to become.

"Merlin, Lily, are you alright?" he asked concernedly. "You don't look very well at all…."

She waved an evasive hand as she attempted to breathe in through her nose and out of her mouth.

"You're quite sure you're alright?" he questioned again, placing a hand on her back, whence her breathing immediately became more strenuous.

She nodded her head quickly and shook him away with a hand.

"Lily, I really think you ought to go to Madam Pomfrey," said James, attempting to stand her up by taking her elbow. "You look as if you'll faint any moment now."

"I'm… fine," she said, taking a deep breath. "I'd do… well with… a… paper bag… though…"

James quickly conjured the necessary paper bag with a wave of his wand and it was immediately snatched up by Lily, who began to breathe deeply into it. The Muggle remedy seemed to be working, James noticed, as her breathing slowed to its normal pace.

She dropped back onto the couch, paper bag still in hand, with a sigh.

James shuffled his feet before saying quickly, "Er… well, I'm just going to hide in my room now."

But before he could get halfway to the stairs, he heard Lily call to him, "James… wait."

He turned to see her with a rather strained smile on her face as she motioned to the seat next to her. James sat down with a grunt. He had turned excessively pink yet again.

"Look, James, I know you—you're rather fond of me, and… and, well, I have to admit that I'm rather fond of you myself."

His eyebrows rose as he turned pinker, this time with what could be assumed as delight.

"And, erm…" she continued, twisting her hands in her lap distractedly, "I was thinking that, since we're both rather—rather fond of the other, we might… give us a go."

She glanced sideways at James to find him staring at her rather oddly. Her ears turned pink.

James attempted to make the words "Merlin, _yes_! I've been waiting three years for you to say those words!" come out of his mouth, but instead found his tongue to be stuck to the roof of his mouth. He opted to simply nod his head in response rather than try and speak.

She visibly brightened at this sign of recognition. "Excellent! There's a Hogsmeade visit this weekend, so I reckon that'd be a fine time for a date, yes?"

He nodded again.

"I should be ready around ten o'clock, so be ready by then, alright?"

He nodded his head as he made a mental note of this.

"So then… I'll see you later," Lily said, placed a small peck on his cheek, and walked toward her dorm with a noticeable spring in her step.

As James put his shaking fingers to where her lips had touched his skin, he couldn't help but notice how he was having a difficult time breathing (for he didn't handle shock well, and if this wasn't the greatest shock of his short life, then he didn't know what was).

For as he took a deep gulp of air to regulate his breathing, he couldn't help but think of how useful that paper bag would've been right about now.

**FIN.**


End file.
